Blood pounded in Sam’s ears. Shouting incoherently, feeling his eyes glowing blood-red, he began pounding on the invisible barrier that separated him from his foe.
The demon watched him silently for a moment. “That’s the spirit,” he said, although Sam could barely hear him. He stood up and straightened his suit, brushing imaginary fluff from his jacket as the chair disappeared. “I think that went well,” he said to no-one in particular.
With a last cheery wave at the furious teenager, he stepped into the shadows. The vapours seemed to wrap themselves around him, and suddenly he was gone.
Alone, only vaguely aware of this fact, Sam continued to rage against the barrier, striking it again and again with all the force he could muster.
9
PRESENT
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.”
Revelation 13: 16–18
By the time he and Josh arrived at Bryce Valley City, it was almost morning. That surprised Sam; during his research, he’d thought it would only take a couple of hours at most to reach the city from Black Ridge. But then, his calculations were based on walking overland at his own pace. He’d never planned on driving.
True to his word, Adam had cleared the roads all the way through to Bryce Valley — Sam had seen the snowplough they’d used for the job parked next to the jeep just before they left Black Ridge. They had to make a few detours; once to avoid a large pack of Lemure and then where a recently burnt-out truck completely blocked the road. The route wasn’t simple, backtracking and then driving on through a number of small towns, all seemingly deserted. Once they’d got onto one of the state highways, however, it became plain sailing.
During the journey, Sam was quite content to sit back and let Joshua drive, alert but relaxed. He’d seen a couple of Astaroth flying in the distance, but the jeep had easily outpaced them. Joshua kept quiet. If he’d seen the Astaroth, he didn’t say anything. He seemed to know where he was going and for once, Sam was enjoying putting his feet up.
That all changed when they reached Bryce Valley.
Sam sat up suddenly when he realized what was before them. The road leading west was barricaded by the burnt remains of various vehicles. A group of dishevelled humans were sitting on top of the mound, holding a squirming teenage girl. All were armed.
Just in front of them was another car. All the doors were open and two bodies, motionless, blood pooling around them, were sprawled on the pavement next to it.
The barricade was new. When Adam had told them about the route to take, he hadn’t mentioned these people. That meant they weren’t here last time he’d sent out a scavenging patrol. This wasn’t good. Wasn’t good at all.
Their destination, Bryce Valley City, was just off the state highway, and Sam could already see the sign for the turnoff just before the make-shift barrier. Unfortunately, the survivors had already seen them.
“Reverse,” said Sam.
“Yeah, I know,” replied Joshua, already wrestling with the gear box.
Too late, Sam spotted another group of survivors coming up behind them. It was a trap — a simple one, but all the best traps were. Up ahead, the first group were ambling towards the jeep, two of them dragging the crying girl between them.
“Stop your car and get out,” yelled a large man who had positioned himself in front the jeep.
Sam and Joshua exchanged looks. “Do what I do,” Sam whispered to him.
Josh shut off the engine and they climbed out cautiously. Sam left his weapons in their sheaths although his fingers ached to draw them. For his part, Joshua was armed with a baseball bat spiked with iron nails — an effective demon killer. Adam had explained he could not spare one of the machine guns and so had given him the weapon instead. Joshua kept the weapon in his hand but did not raise it. Many of these survivors were armed with hunting rifles and he was not about to provoke them.
As Sam and Joshua moved to the front of the jeep, Sam used the opportunity to assess the situation. Before him were five men; four had hunting rifles, although two of them had their hands full with the girl and had slung theirs over their backs. The leader — the large one who had spoken — had a shotgun. There were another four behind them, but only two had firearms. The others had improvised weapons like the one Joshua had in his hand. Nine to two. Seven to two if you discounted the ones with the girl. Still not very good odds.
The leader, a grizzled middle-aged man with a large paunch, eyed both boys. “Good to see some travellers around these parts,” he said, grinning. Two of his front teeth were missing. “Usually they scream when they see us. Often afterwards, too.”
“We’re just passing through,” said Sam.
“Well, you won’t be passing through here,” said the leader. “Have you seen the barricade, or are you blind?”
He laughed and his men laughed with them, although some of it sounded forced. A few of them were nervously eyeing up Sam. His large athletic build combined with his hood and the strapped-on swords made him an intimidating figure.
The leader stepped right up in front of Sam. He was a big man but Sam still topped him by a couple of inches. He stared Sam right in the eye and Sam got a wash of fetid breath. “So are you blind, boy?”
“No, sir,” said Sam, trying to suppress the urge to slice the man open. He needed to keep the situation as calm as possible.
“You will be in a minute when you find you can’t see your car.” He laughed, but this time none of the other men joined in. “Because we’re going to take it,” he explained to the others. They finally got it and sniggered half-heartedly.
“Right,”he ordered, “Steve, you grab the car. The rest of you search it and see if you can find anything useful. As you for,” he said eyeing up the swords on Sam’s back and hip, “we’ll take those nice-looking blades too.”
“No,” said Sam.
The man eyeballed him. “What did you say to me?”
“Did you not hear, or are you deaf? No,” said Sam again, shifting his feet ever so slightly.
The leader levelled his shotgun at him. “Give me the swords or I’ll put a hole in you so big, I’ll be able to drive this jeep through it.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Sam could see Josh watching him nervously. He gave him the stay calm signal with the palm of his hand. And then he moved. Fast.
It was over before it even began. Josh hadn’t seen how he’d done it, but suddenly Sam was behind the fat leader with his wakizashi at his throat. The terrified man hadn’t even had a chance to fire a shot.
“Stop, boys,” he yelled at his men as he saw them readying their weapons. “Don’t shoot.” He dropped his own weapon from suddenly nerveless fingers.
“I’ll tell you what’s going to happen now,” said Sam in his ear, quietly but enough to carry in the sudden silence. “Me and my friend are going to drive off down that road,” he said, nodding towards Bryce Valley City, “with my swords and everything in our jeep. And we’ll take the girl too. Do you understand?”
The man nodded very carefully, conscious of the razor sharp blade beneath his chin.
“You aren’t going to follow us and you’re certainly not going to shoot at us. Because, I’ll come back and I will be angry. Trust me when I say this: you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry. Understand?”
The man nodded again, sweat running down his brow. A dark stain was spreading in the front of his pants.